To be able to do the FSL Course practicals (including those in the preparatory material) you must download data and put it in a standard location. The easiest way is to use the fsl_add_module command, which is installed with FSL. Alternatively, these instructions will explain how to do it yourself. Note that for people on an organised course, you will need to install data (either way) for the preparatory material but not for the main sections (as these will have already been done for you).

Step 1: Download the data

• Using a terminal, download with wget (Windows/Linux) or curl (Mac)

Note that some of the tar.gz files are very large (e.g. over 15GB) and it is possible for you to do it in several stages (by restarting at the point it previously stopped).

Step 2: Move the data

• If your download is still a tar.gz file:
  • move it into your home directory (drag with a graphical file browser or use mv in a terminal)
  • unpack the file (double click if using the graphical file browser or use tar -zxvf in a terminal)
  The tar.gz files will unpack into a directory called fsl_course_data (except for Intro to UNIX) and that will sit in your home directory. Within this there will be separate subdirectories for the different practicals or subparts of the practicals.
• If your download has already been unpacked:
  • If you do not yet have a directory called fsl_course_data in your home directory then just move fsl_course_data from where it was unpacked to your home directory (either dragging it or using mv)
  • If you already have a directory called fsl_course_data in your home directory then move all the individual subdirectories (i.e. the folders within fsl_course_data folder) into the version of fsl_course_data that is already in your home directory (either dragging it or using mv)

The results above are the same whether you use a graphical file browser or the terminal, so choose whatever you are more comfortable with.

If you have downloaded your data with the browser then you can move it and unpack it like this:

• cd ~
• mv ~/Downloads/preCourse.tar.gz ~
• tar -zxvf preCourse.tar.gz

If it is already unpacked then you can move it like this:

• cd ~
• mv ~/Downloads/fsl_course_data/* ~/fsl_course_data/

Notes: (i) the location of the download might be different to ~/Downloads/ on your system; (ii) this example was for preCourse.tar.gz and this will need to be tailored to your particular section; and (iii) the Intro to UNIX does not unpack into fsl_course_data - see the video for more info on this.

Alternatives to using the browser for downloading data are shown below (using wget or curl).

Using wget to download the course data

As the course data files are large, Windows and Linux users may find that using the wget command to download the course data files is more reliable than using a browser. In a terminal, change to the folder you wish to download the data to and issue one or more of the following commands:

wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/UnixIntro.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/preCourse.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/registration.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/structural.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fmri1.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fmri2.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fmri3.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/rest.tar.gz
wget -c https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fdt.tar.gz
	      

If, for some reason your wget downloads are interrupted, you can restart any incomplete downloads by running the same wget command again.

Using curl to download the course data

As the course data files are large, Mac users may find that using the curl command to download the course data files is more reliable than using a browser. In a terminal, change to the folder you wish to download the data to and issue one or more of the following commands:

curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/UnixIntro.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/preCourse.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/registration.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/structural.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fmri1.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fmri2.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fmri3.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/rest.tar.gz
curl -L -# -O -C - https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fslcourse/downloads/fdt.tar.gz
	      

If, for some reason your curl downloads are interrupted, you can restart any incomplete downloads by running the same curl command again.